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United Solarian Star Force
The United Solarian Star Force is the spaceborne warfare branch of the United Solarian Sovereignty. It is the smallest of the uniformed services in terms of manpower, but receives the largest influx of funding, often to the envy of the USMC. The USSF traces its origins to the First Bragulan War, when the small and scattered space forces of the original eleven colonies were forced to band together and cooperate to stem the tide of Bragulan warships. In those early days the USSF suffered heavy losses battling the spaceborne forces of the Bragulan Star Empire, and as a result the Star Force has developed an especially savage hatred for the Bragulans which endures to this very day. The 35th century USSF maintains a sizable intergalactic presence, deploying throughout Wild Space and to foreign states to show the flag. It has the ability to project force throughout the galaxy, engage in forward areas during peacetime, and a network of well-mapped hyperlanes, hyperspace nexii and stargates allows the USSF to rapidly respond to regional crises, making it a keystone of Sovereignty foreign and defense policy. The overall long-term strategies of the USSF are built around the principles of deterrence ''and ''retaliation. The first principle means that the high command must ensure the Sovereignty is seen to be strong enough to fight off any foe. The USSF therefore must be perceived to be mighty enough to ensure that it is not worth any rival's time to attack the holdings or territory of the Sovereignty. This also fits well with the Sovereignty's relative openness about its military strengths and equipment. The second principle means that, if someone does attack the Sovereignty, then the USSF will hit back--''hard''. The Star Force is one hundred percent committed to maintaining the integrity of the Sovereignty's holdings and will do everything in its power to reclaim them. There are very few examples of anyone ever taking anything from the U.S.S. and holding it, intact or otherwise, and the USSF strives to keep it that way. For this reason its warships must remain capable of achieving dominance over any potential foe, in any circumstance. As a result, the USSF fields a wide range of warships, from agile scouts to multi-purpose cruisers and devastatingly powerful warships geared exclusively toward total warfare. Technology Dark Energy Reactor Dark Energy is a form of energy that naturally permeates all of space throughout the universe, and on large scales it opposes the force of gravity as it has strong negative pressure. Dark Energy reactors convert this ambient energy into matter; dark energy's negative pressure means that the plasma that results from the conversion is a form of exotic matter. The exotic high-energy plasma is also sometimes referred to as dark energy for the sake of convenience. This technology, which is employed by virtually all interstellar starships in the Sovereignty, is therefore powered by the natural energy of space itself. A Dark Energy reactor locally increases the intensity of time-energy uncertainty fluctuations, creating a sphere of volatile space-time in the reactor core that has a high concentration of dark energy. An anti-mass condenser field converts the dark energy into particles of exotic matter, which are emitted from the poles of the sphere as beams of plasma. Although the initial start-up process requires an immense amount of power, the exotic properties of the dark energy plasma further amplify the quantum fluctuations and cause a chain reaction within the core that makes the reactor self-sustaining and capable of producing near-astronomical amounts of power. Containment systems are required to ensure the intensity of the dark energy reaction stays within safe limits in a vacuum. If this system fails, the reactor can develop an exponentially accelerating positive feedback loop, absorbing all dark energy from the surrounding space-time into the reaction and converting it into a destructive burst of exotic particles, known as a dark energy flare, which can completely annihilate the ship and everything in its immediate surroundings. Typically a single Dark Energy reactor is sufficient to satisfy the power demands of a starship (and then some); however for the sake of redundancy most warships carry a at least a secondary reactor core, and the very largest warships in fact carry several more in order to generate truly suprastellar levels of weapon energy output. Hyperfield CAM Beamer Autolaser Line Cannon Warship classes Bloodhound-class Spystar Spystars are stealthed vessels that trade most of their offensive capabilities for a heavy-duty ECM suites and scatterscreens that render them very nearly undetectable. Spystars serve as fleet pickets, long-range scouts, reconnaissance vehicles and infiltrators. A large number of Spystars are in use by the CEID intelligence agency. Gangster-class IOU Independent Offensive Units (IOUs) are unmanned warships, piloted by advanced AI. They are used as fleet screens, fast strike craft, patrol ships and light carriers. The Gangster ''is the only class of IOUs, but it has an almost infinite number of subclasses configured for a bewildering variety of roles. Most commonly seen are the ''Outlaw, Bandit, Hooligan ''and ''Hatchetman ''subclasses. Assailant-class Strikestar If you ask any citizen of the Sovereignty to describe a warship, the description you get back will almost certainly fit the ''Assailant ''to a T. These iconic dagger-shaped warships have kept the peace on the colonial fringe for decades, long enough for them (and their crews) to garner a reputation comparable to the gunslinger-sheriffs of the Old West. Each carries a sizeable number of fighters, a marine complement, and enough weapons to deter (or blow up outright) most pirates and other armed stragglers. And if the ''Assailant ''comes across anything it can't deal with on its own, it is fast enough to get away quick and call the cavalry. Onslaught-class Warstar The mainstay warship in the United Sovereignty Star Navy, the ''Onslaught ''is essentially the bigger brother of the ''Assailant: more fighters, more marines, and many, many more weapons. The Onslaught ''sports four clusters of prow-mounted line cannons, as well as a full complement of quad-mounted autolasers and CAM-beamers. Heavily shielded, the ''Onslaught ''can take massive amounts of punishment. Large numbers of these warships are stationed at the forward naval bases at Hochbaden and Key West, from where they occasionally venture into Wild Space whenever something needs a good ass-kicking. Atrocity-class Warstar The ''Atrocity-class was developed after the Battle of the Tannhauser Gate when USS authorities believed a full-scale Bragulan invasion was imminent and a 'warship gap' was perceived to exist. It has only a negligible complement of fighters and marines, but is instead geared almost solely toward blowing up enemy warships, something it does very well. Endless rows of autolasers and CAM-beamers can make short work of everything, from the very largest of Bragulan warships to the most numerous of Karlack swarms. Genocide-class Dreadstar The very largest warship ever constructed by the USS, only a handful of Genocide-class Dreadstars has been built so far--but then, only very few threats could possibly require the intervention of such a humongous warship to deal with. The Genocide-class is a titan in every respect: shield strength, engine throughput, weapons power. This warship is so powerful that it can reduce entire fleets of lesser vessels to clouds of debris, and lush continents to molten slag with trivial ease. Command is entrusted to only the most responsible of officers, and even then they rarely leave the core territories of the USS... The only exception being the USS Murderous, the flagship of Brigadier Flash Stalin's 616 Interplanetary Patrol Group, known in Wild Space by their nickname "Hell's Bells".